1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is such a liquid crystal display device that has a structure in which two glass substrates are bonded to each other with a sealing member interposed therebetween. Each of the glass substrates has a transparent electrode formed on a surface opposed to the other substrate, and liquid crystal is filled in a space located between the glass plates and surrounded by the sealing member. In a method of manufacturing the above described device, two glass plates for forming a plurality of liquid crystal display devices are prepared, the two glass plates are bonded to each other after performing predetermined pretreatments such as forming of transparent electrodes and forming of a sealing member. The bonded glass plates are cut into a plurality of units for a plurality of liquid crystal display devices before or after injecting liquid crystal between the glass plates of each unit.
A manner of cutting the two glass plates in the above-described conventional manufacturing method will be explained with reference to FIG. 8.
At first, as shown in FIG. 8A, two glass plates 1 and 2 are bonded to each other with a plurality of sealing members 3 interposed therebetween, and a liquid crystal 4 is sealed in a plurality of spaces located between the glass plates 1 and 2 and surrounded by the sealing members 3. Thereafter, marking lines la are scribed with the use of a wheel (not shown) in an outer surface of one of the glass plates 1, 2 which is located on the upper side. Then, as is shown in FIG. 8B, the bonded glass plates 1 and 2 are manually turned over, and a shock is applied to the glass plates 1 and 2 from upward of the upwardly located glass plate 2 so as to produce a stress in the marking lines la of the downwardly located glass plate 1, thereby cutting the glass plate 1 along the marking lines 1a. Subsequently, as is shown in FIG. 8C, marking lines 2a are scribed in an outer surface of the upwardly located glass plate 2, and the glass plates 1 and 2 are manually turned over. Then, a shock is applied to the glass plates 1 and 2 from upward of the upwardly located glass plate 1 so as to produce a stress in the marking lines 2a of the downwardly located glass plate 2, thereby cutting the glass plate 2 along the marking lines 2a as shown in FIG. 8D. Then, as is shown in FIG. 8E, portions of the glass plate 2 which correspond to terminal portions 5 of the glass plate 1 are removed so that a plurality of liquid crystal cells 6 are obtained.
As described above, in the conventional glass-cutting method, it is necessary to manually turn over the glass plates 1 and 2 twice. Thus, the conventional method requires troublesome manual turn over operations which increase a manufacturing cost of the liquid crystal display device. Further, since a shock is applied to both the glass plates 1 and 2 from upward of the upwardly located glass plate so as to produce a stress in the marking lines of the downwardly located glass plate, those portions of the downwardly located glass plate which are other than the marking lines may be broken, or the upwardly located glass plate may be broken unintentionally, so that the yield of products is reduced.